By Alan Gardner
Professional cartoonist

There is a whole mental and physical process involved in creating a cartoon that can only be understood by those who go through it regularly.

The following is for the up-and-coming editorial cartoonist. It will focus on three main keys of cartooning: content, creating the cartoon and tools of the trade.

An editorial cartoon's real punch is in the content. When we talk of content, we are not limiting it just to editorial statements, but how object or subject matters are covered, and how the cartoon was drawn. It's the most important area in cartooning, yet it is the most difficult to explain.

The real work in editorial cartooning isn't what the hand draws, but the thought process that occurs before anything is drawn. Have a point. The cartoon has to be able to stand on its own. The reader should not have to read the house editorial to understand your cartoon. If you are assigned the same topic as the house editorial, don't just illustrate you editor's words. Express your own opinion of the subject. If you don't have an opinion, get one. Avoid doing cartoons that you don't believe in. Unlike house editorials, you sign your name on the cartoon
making the statements and draftsmanship uniquely your own.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Make sure you are thinking about your audience when you brainstorm. If you are doing great cartoons on a subject no one is talking about, the cartoon will go straight over their heads no matter how brilliant the cartoon may be. The best cartoons deal with subjects that are current and widely known among your audience. Likewise, use analogies that your audience will quickly comprehend.

BE WELL-INFORMED. Cartoon ideas come from how well your brain can make associations and see connections between often unrelated subjects. The more information and knowledge stored in your brain, the better chance you have to create something meaningful. A wise cartoonist should understand history, literature, and current events (movies, music, commercials etc).

DOODLE. When trying to come up with cartoon ideas, don't forget to doodle. Cartooning is a visual art form, so oftentimes doodling will help stimulate ideas. Another method is writing down all the words, phrases or images that come to mind associated with the subject.

BE ORIGINAL. Be creative in your analogies. Try to avoid cliches. Likewise if the cartoon idea was too easy to come up with, most likely you're not the only one that thought of it. Make it your challenge to be original.

Creating the cartoon is often the most enjoyable part. There is a certain magic in making a good idea in your mind come alive on paper. Here are five important points to remember when you've got the idea and are ready to put it to paper. Draw big. Always draw bigger than the published size. Use a copy machine to shrink the cartoon to the size it will run in the paper. Editorial cartoonists draw their cartoons 20-33% (or even 50%) larger than the printed size. Drawing at larger sizes allow the artist to draw in much more detail. You'll also find some of your mistakes are less noticeable after the whole image is reduced.

DIALOG BALLOONS. If you use a dialog balloon, write the words BEFORE you draw the balloon. The surest sign of an underdeveloped cartoonist is that they draw the dialog balloon first, and then try to squeeze and cram all the words into the balloon — often making the words illegible. Print the words, and then draw the balloon around the dialog giving the words plenty of white space between the words and the edge of the balloon Give as much detail and effort into quality lettering as you do the rest of the drawing.

DRAW MORE THAN ONE. Try to come up with more than one cartoon on the subject(s). It is a little more work, but it gives you the chance to pick through and develop the best of the batch.

TRY DIFFERENT ANGLES. Once you've settled on the cartoon, draw the cartoon from different angles. Play with positioning the cartoon figures in the cartoon. Do the same with dialog balloons.

VARY PERSPECTIVE. Avoid having all cartoons set during daylight or having an empty background. Remember, you are the director of the cartoon. You control where objects stand, the lighting and the environment the objects are in. Try to vary the perspectives you use. If you drew a cartoon yesterday from a bird's eye view looking to the left, draw something today from a worm's eye view. And pick backgrounds that help establish the setting of the cartoon.

Using quality tools can affect the quality of the drawing. Likewise, learning how to use the correct tools can dramatically improve your work. Talk to your adviser to see how much the following he/she is willing to purchase for you or may already have available. Here's the list in order of usage.

1. TYPING PAPER. Use it for doodles, brainstorming and practice sketches.
   
   
2. CARD STOCK. Card stock is thicker than typing paper and takes inks well for the final draft. Keep the paper in a dry place. Humidity causes the paper to soak up ink, and you end up with bleeding lines.
   
   
3. RULERS AND TRIANGLES. These are indispensable for measuring, making borders, and creating perfect 90-degree angles.
   
   
4. PENCILS. It doesn't matter if you use a wood pencil or a mechanical, but the lead grade is important. Lead comes in different grades. 8B is the softest, 8H is the hardest, and HB is somewhere in the middle. Try a few to see which one is best for your drawing style. Be warned that the softer lead you use the easier it is to smear all over your work. The other extreme is the hard lead which makes you press really hard to get legible lines. This creates gouges and depressions on the paper that make complete erasing difficult and copy machines usually reproduce these lines. A safe bet is to use pencils with HB or B grade.
   
   
5. ERASER. Get one. Pink, white, gray, big or small it doesn't matter as long as it works.
   
   
6. PENS. Get a variety of black pens with different tip sizes. Experiment with different pen brands to see which ones are better at tracing over pencil. A good set of felt tipped pens is indispensable.
   
   
7. BRUSHES AND INK. For the experienced or the courageous, get a bottle of waterproof black india ink and a brush (sizes needed range between 0-4 depending on how big the drawing area is). The brush adds variety and weight to the lines that can't be duplicated by pens. Be diligent in cleaning the brush bristles or the hairs will split. Don't forget to let the ink dry before you erase the pencil sketches.
   
   
8. DICTIONARY. Learn to spell check your work during and after your work. Nothing is as embarrassing as misspelling a word.
   
   
9. WHITE OUT. There are all types of white out products. For the most part, regular white out from the office supply store will work fine. These tips are a starting point. To be really good at cartooning, you will have to spend hundreds of hours at the drawing board drawing, doodling, writing and studying the work of other artists. It will take persistence and patience but when you finally get it, every politician, administrator and/or city councilman will wish you never did.